Billie Joe Armstrong Talks Substance Abuse & Rehab In ‘Rolling Stone’ Cover Story

Yikes! Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is taking the cover of Rolling Stone this week, after last year saw a very public meltdown and subsequent stint in rehab that forced the band to cancel their tour dates — and to hear him talk, it sounds like things were pretty grisly. (Actually, “gruesome” is the word that he used when describing his detox process: “That was gruesome, laying on the bathroom floor and just feeling like… I didn’t realize how much of that stuff affected me,” he said.)

“I’m a blackout drinker. That’s basically what happened,” he said by way of explaining his now-infamous Justin Bieber tantrum.

But it wasn’t just the drinking — it was the pills that he was taking for anxiety and depression. (It sounds like they were multitudinous.) “I started combining them to a point where I didn’t know what I was taking during the day and what I was taking at night. It was just this routine. My backpack sounded like a giant baby rattle.”

Now, though, it sounds like he’s on the road to recovery; after this hiatus, the band will resume touring on March 10. Good to have you back, Billie.